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The Fantastic Adventures of Unico
| released = March 14, 1981 (Japan) May 12, 1983 (USA) | runtime = 90 minutes }} Although the TV series was not picked up, Unico soon made it to the silver screen in two feature-length anime films produced by Sanrio and Tezuka Productions with animation by Madhouse Studios. Unico's first movie, titled The Fantastic Adventures of Unico in English and simply Unico in Japan, was released in Japan on March 14, 1981. This musical film, narrated by Iruka, directed by Toshio Hirata, written by Masaki Tsuji, and with animation by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, presents the back story of Unico's banishment by the gods and his subsequent travels, as well as his friendships with Beezle (to whom he grants his own horn) and Chao/Katy (to whom he grants the wish of becoming a human girl). Beezle the Scottish Devil (known as "Akuma-kun," or "Little Devil," in the original version) initially rejects Unico's overtures of friendship, but comes around when he realizes how lonely he really is. After Beezle saves Unico from drowning, the two begin their friendship in earnest, but then the West Wind comes to take Unico away so he will not be discovered. The next creature Unico encounters is Chao (Katy), a black-and-white cat who dreams of becoming a witch. Katy and Unico befriend a lonely old woman, whom Katy mistakenly believes is a witch and will teach her some magic as well as transform her into a human girl. When Unico changes Katy into a girl, Katy at first believes that the old woman did it, until Unico proves it was his doing by changing her back into a cat; but Unico, seeing how selfish Katy has become, refuses to change Katy back to a girl, until one day when Katy saves the old woman from drowning. Katy then becomes entranced by a man posing as a lord (Danshaku in Japanese, Baron de Ghost in English). He invites her to his castle, gets her drunk and attempts to seduce her. Unico follows, rescuing Katy (with help from Beezle) after transforming into a majestic white winged unicorn and destroying the demonic Cow Skeleton Monster that the "lord" had transformed into. Afterwards, West Wind comes to take Unico away again, and Katy moves in with the old woman. This movie includes several songs, most of which were performed by the movie's narrators, singer/songwriter Iruka in the original version and Joan-Carol O'Connell in the English dub; however, Chao/Katy's recurring theme song, Chao no Kuroneko no Uta (The Song of Black Cat Chao), was sung by Chao's voice actresses, Kazuko Sugiyama in the Japanese version and Robin Levenson in the English dub. The movie's other songs include Unico no Teemu (Unico's Theme), Hontou wa Subishikute/''Lonely''http://www.animelyrics.com/anime/unico (Beezle/Akuma-kun's image song), and Majo Neko Chao (Witch Cat Chao)/''Katy The Kitty Witch'', all sung by Iruka or O'Connell. For the U.S. release, all of the songs were dubbed into English along with the spoken dialogue, except for the ending song over the closing credits, which is an instrumental in the English version. Unico was voiced by Katsue Miwa in the original version and Barbara Goodson in the English dub. Voice Cast Original *Unico - Katsue Miwa *Night - Ryouko Kitamiya *Chao - Kazuko Sugiyama *Beezle - Junko Hori *Baron - Makio Inoue *Narrator - Iruka *Elder - Taeko Nakanishi *West - Chieko Baishô English *Ardwight Chamberlain - The Devil of Solitude, God 3, God 4, God 7 *Louise Chamis - Old Woman, The Night Wind *Cheryl Chase - Beezle *Ron Gans - God 2 *Barbara Goodson - Unico *J.C. Henning - Narrator *Robin Levenson - Caty *Jan Rabson - God 1, God 6 *Michael Sorich - God 5 *George Takei - Trojan Horse Category:1981 anime films